braking lenses that are effective in the long term

For myopia control to be effective in children, the benefit of treatment, i.e. slowing of eye growth, must not be compromised by eye growth faster than normal (“rebound effect”). “) after stopping treatment. In other words, there was a fear that by stopping wearing myopia-reducing lenses, the eye would develop more quickly than normal. But a study by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in the United States is reassuring on this point. Its objective was to determine whether there is a loss of therapeutic effect after stopping wearing multifocal soft contact lenses in children with myopia.

To answer this question, the BLINK2 (Bifocal Lenses in Nearsighted Kids 2) study included myopic children (aged 11 to 17 years at the start of BLINK2) who participated in the BLINK randomized clinical trial. Recruitment took place from September 2019 to January 2021, with follow-up until January 2024. In BLINK2, all participants wore high addition multifocal lenses (+2.50 diopters) for 2 years, then unifocal during the third year which made it possible to evaluate a possible rebound effect. To assess eye growth and an effect on myopia, the researchers used the axial length of the eye (by optical biometric examination) and the refractive error (by cycloplegic auto-refraction), measured annually. .

For precision, the axial length of the eye corresponds to the distance between the anterior surface of the cornea and the retina. It reflects the size of the eye and plays a determining role in refraction and the focusing of images on the retina. In myopia, an excessive increase in this length is often observed, which causes images to focus in front of the retina, resulting in blurred vision of distant objects – what is called a refractive error.

According to the results which have just been published in JAMA Ophtalmologychildren who used lenses to slow the progression of myopia retained the benefits of the treatment, even after stopping wearing them in adolescence. Indeed, BLINK2 found no evidence of loss of therapeutic effect (rebound effect) after stopping multifocal lenses in older adolescents. According to the researchers, eye growth and progression of myopia resume at a faster rate, but consistent with that expected for age.

These data therefore confirm that participants who wore lenses that slowed the progression of myopia were less myopic than if they had not worn them. They thus support the idea, according to them, that children must be equipped from a very young age and that it is useful to continue wearing multifocal lenses until growth stops and therefore the progression of the myopia in children.

Source : David A. Berntsen et al. Axial Growth and Myopia Progression After Discontinuing Soft Multifocal Contact Lens Wear. JAMA Ophthalmol. Published online January 16, 2025. doi:10.1001/jamaophthalmol.2024.5885